Investor · Maui, HI · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 3k+ votes
Hey Pro members,
Just wanted to let you know what you might have already noticed... you now have the ability to CHAT with other BiggerPockets Members who are your colleagues! Yep, just take a look at the bottom right hand corner of your screen and you'll see the Chat box (If not, click the chat icon next to your photo on the top right.)
Right now, we are making the chat feature available just to PRO members to help us test it out and find bugs. So take a test drive and let us know what you think! Feel free to leave feedback here in this thread.
I love it!! But wouldn't be me without a suggestion or two :-)
From my desk top, I had a difficult time seeing the little dots that are the online indicators.
I would like to see the "online" indicator be more prominent, and a sorting feature to show you only colleagues who are online. I couldn't really tell what order my colleagues were sorted in? But I'd like to see all who are on line at the top so I don't have to scroll through them all.
Just a thought.
Extrapolating on Jerry's suggestion. Many chat utilities will do one, or several of the following:
1) order your list of colleagues such that those who are online are at the top of the list; those who are idle are next, followed by "do not disturb" and "offline".
2) The background colour and/or text colour used to display a colleague changes depending on their status: e.g. grey - for offline; green - for active; red - for do not disturb; orange - for away, etc. This is easier to see than the little gear icon next to a name.
3) The ability to set an alert to notify you when a particular colleague comes on-line (either from being off-line, invisible or in "do not disturb" mode.
Wholesaler · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2010 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
11y
I love it!! But wouldn't be me without a suggestion or two :-)
From my desk top, I had a difficult time seeing the little dots that are the online indicators.
I would like to see the "online" indicator be more prominent, and a sorting feature to show you only colleagues who are online. I couldn't really tell what order my colleagues were sorted in? But I'd like to see all who are on line at the top so I don't have to scroll through them all.
Real Estate Broker · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
11y
I like it as well. If it would be possible to make the box itself moveable that would be great. If you're not full screen it can get a bit in the way but I'm just being picky! Keep up the great work!
I love it!! But wouldn't be me without a suggestion or two :-)
From my desk top, I had a difficult time seeing the little dots that are the online indicators.
I would like to see the "online" indicator be more prominent, and a sorting feature to show you only colleagues who are online. I couldn't really tell what order my colleagues were sorted in? But I'd like to see all who are on line at the top so I don't have to scroll through them all.
Just a thought.
Extrapolating on Jerry's suggestion. Many chat utilities will do one, or several of the following:
1) order your list of colleagues such that those who are online are at the top of the list; those who are idle are next, followed by "do not disturb" and "offline".
2) The background colour and/or text colour used to display a colleague changes depending on their status: e.g. grey - for offline; green - for active; red - for do not disturb; orange - for away, etc. This is easier to see than the little gear icon next to a name.
3) The ability to set an alert to notify you when a particular colleague comes on-line (either from being off-line, invisible or in "do not disturb" mode.
Re the contact list order: Definitely still working on it. It has issues right now...
Background color based on status: Good idea. I'll bring it up to our graphics designer.
Colleague status alert: I'll add it to my todo list.
Groups organization: I want to implement this... It's just a matter of deciding how far reaching it is and time. Won't be available for the initial release of the chat but it's on the drawing board.
Group chat: The backend is ready for group chats. Front end is not and won't be for the initial release, but it's in the works.
Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
11y
Using my phone, I find it annoying that when I scroll a post, the darned chat box scrolls along too and blocks the view of the post until I lift my finger. Please fix that.
Thank you for all of your hard work! This is good stuff. One more suggestion....
I am often on BP (logged in with at least one tab open) all day. But I do most of my work on other open tabs, which means I could miss an incoming chat (last one for four hours) until I'm back actively looking at BP.
Could we have some sort of audible alert for an incoming chat similar to the way Gtalk or hangouts works? No matter what tab I'm on I get an alert.
Alternately, maybe the ability to pop out the chat box into it's own little window? I could park it on a different screen. That would also speak to @Ryan Dossey's placement issue.
There should be a click noise when you receive a chat message on newer browsers. I purposely choose something I thought would be non-intrusive so I'm not sure if your not hearing it because there is something I did wrong, your using an older browser or just not noticing it. Which browser are you using?
Also, the colleague list should work significantly better now.
Re the contact list order: Definitely still working on it. It has issues right now...
Background color based on status: Good idea. I'll bring it up to our graphics designer.
Colleague status alert: I'll add it to my todo list.
Groups organization: I want to implement this... It's just a matter of deciding how far reaching it is and time. Won't be available for the initial release of the chat but it's on the drawing board.
Group chat: The backend is ready for group chats. Front end is not and won't be for the initial release, but it's in the works.
Thanks again for the feedback. Keep it coming!
Robert:
Are using an XMPP aware server (like Jabber) in the back end? If so, how about adding access for other XMPP clients to your todo list? I use Adium for all my other chat needs and it would be most convenient to use it for BP as well.
Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
11y
@Robert Perry - I'm not sure if the behavior I'm experiencing is due to a fix you may have implemented for the issue I noted above, but using BP from the iPhone is now painfully slow - whether it is clicking a link, reloading a BP page, trying to see my notifications, opening a new browser window and even typing this short reply are all way too slow to be useable. And I almost left out scrolling as being non-responsive when I first attempt to scroll on any BP page.